JLZ at Harris Neck National Wildlife Refuge on the Georgia coast. I gaze at this pic of me, and . . . I’m good with it. Gave up long, long ago comparing myself with make-believe folks, like Hollywood stars, TV personalities and Mickey and Roger and Michale Jordan and what was the name of that NY Giants football great? I stare at this, the me of me, and smile, the street kid in very real Brooklyn, the kid who took the subway to the National Golden Gloves Finals, boxed in Boys Club, took the NY subways for those years to college w/ long steel on me, kinda had Connected friends, but knew that would not be good for the future, Dean (for Discipline) in a New York City high school, managed a Staten Island multi-family and smiled as the last Connected Guy living there moved, was an artilleryman and graduated from OCS, managed buildings in New York’s Chelsea, East Village, SoHo, West Village, Upper East Side, Upper West . . . .
Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Success and a firm belief in G-d are the wind to my sails now. Wealth . . . gone. Friends . . . elusive. Family . . . ‘Dad you shoot “Bugs?”‘ Hey, I LOVE seeking and photographing butterflies. I more so enjoy when YOU come along and ‘Like.’ More than that I LIKE when you ‘Comment.’ You are folks I enjoy, admire and regret that I hardly ever meet!
2021 beckons. Election over, Idiot 20-somethings disappear from the MSMedia . . . 2021 is the year I look forward to busting-out!! I want to shoot, shoot and shoot again. I’ve already received real, not imagined invites to come and be shown destinations heretofore unknown to me in Ohio, Arizona, southwestern Georgia and on the Georgia coast. The ‘Little Boy In The Candy Shop’ is so looking forward to going and meeting Facebook and WordPress friends and together investigating 2021 habitat that they know. Budget? Meager? Heart? Doc always says “Excellent.”
The generation gone always cautioned, “People Plan . . . and G-d Laughs.” What I haven’t mentioned yet is that I’ve always been a species of Optimist. How else could I have survived the stuff written above, the knives, guns, fists, wrecks and the treachery that ended my . . . . Frieda A”H in her last years always (firmly) told me to go, go photograph. Some just hope to see and shoot very, very rare butterflies. Me? I expect that to happen at every turn of the trail.
People Plan . . . & G-d Laughs [at their Plan].
Jeff
Winged Beauty Butterflies 
Great read. I love your acceptance of your true self. Where you come from and where you are today! I am curious however, legitimately. Why is God written as G-d in all of your posts? I’m sure there’s a really good reason. Maybe media requirements? Afraid to step on non-believers toes? I respect it all. Am just confused as you clearly know God, you love what He’s created in you as a human and all His beauty that you so professionally photograph. Anyway, simply curious and I won’t ask again :)
Sincerely,
One of your greatest fans :)
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I enjoy your butterfly adventures and your photos – have been doing the same for 40 years,Including the Holy Land.
I only wish you would spell out GOD. He is the source of all this beauty.
Richard Flasck
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Thank you Richard. In earlier posts, I shared that for many years my wife A”H and I used to visit Pre-Sale Exhibitions of Magnificent Jewelry at New York City’s Christie’s and Sotheby’s and Doyle auction galleries. These were the finest jewelry auction house in the USA. Frieda would try on the best, broaches, pins, bracelets, earrings, etc.. I grew up poor, and this was extraordinary for me. I’d see some of the finest, worn on my wife. When I began shooting butterflies, I was mesmerized, for I saw . . . that such workshops as Cartiers finest creations did not approach the beauty of G-d’s butterflies. That powers my enthusiasm to this day. I try to capture that beauty, and I often share my motives. We learn to not write G-d’s name out, in its entirety, and I try to not do so.
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